Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Vintage photos of:
May 1912. Rock Hill, South Carolina. Arthur Newell, doffer in Manchester Mills. Three weeks at it. 70 cents a day. Said 12 years old. His father in the mill gets $12 a week, mother $9, sister $4.80, he gets $4.20, total $30 a week. "I had ruther go to school but the mill wanted me." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.
"Tom Thumb, full-length portrait, facing front, standing on table." Half-plate daguerreotype c. 1850-55 from the studio of Mathew Brady. View full size.
1936. "Church, Southeastern U.S., probably Alabama or Tennessee." 8x10 safety negative by Walker Evans for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
October 1942. Long Beach, California. "Women are trained to do precise and vital engine installation detail in Douglas Aircraft Co. plants." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information.
Cincinnati, August 1908. "Marie Costa, basket seller, lives at 605 Elm Street. Sixth Street Market, 9 p.m. Had been there since 10 a.m. Sister and friend help her." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Washington, D.C. "Opening game 1923, Griffith Stadium." View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.
1923. White House West Wing. "West promenade terrace atop colonnade betwen Residence and Executive Offices." View full size. National Photo Company.
"Occupational portrait of young man pressing cloth with an iron. Note in case behind daguerreotype: Aron McGove, Lebanon, Dec. 18, 1848." Sixth-plate daguerreotype, photographer unknown. Library of Congress. View full size.